McDonald's Corp. found its greatest success of recent years when it scrapped a diversification strategy and returned to its roots as a purveyor of fast, cheap food for families looking to save money, time, or both.

McDonald's Corp. found its greatest success of recent years when it scrapped a diversification strategy and returned to its roots as a purveyor of fast, cheap food for families looking to save money, time, or both.

The company shed ancillary ventures, cleaned up its restaurants and zeroed in on the customers who made McDonald's one of the most successful businesses of the post-war era. Old favorites like french fries and double cheeseburgers, along with the Dollar Menu and Happy Meals, took center stage again.

What followed was one of the more remarkable turnarounds by a corporation as large as McDonald's. Sales and profits rose sharply for six straight years. The company's stock followed suit.

As the winning streak stretched on, questions inevitably arose about how McDonald's would maintain its momentum. A couple of years ago, executives hatched their most ambitious new product launch in decades, a line of specialty coffees of the type served at Starbucks. Since then, thousands of McDonald's restaurants have installed machines, at $100,000 apiece, to make lattes, espressos and cappuccinos.

It's too early to tell if the strategy is working. But it is clear that the coffee initiative is a big step away from McDonald's sweet spot.

Now the company is making another move in the same direction. As first reported by David Sterrett in Crain's last week, McDonald's plans a multibillion-dollar remodeling project that will give thousands of its restaurants a high-end look.

How radical is the redesign? The golden arches that have dominated McDonald's design since the days of Ray Kroc will take second billing to a new "eyebrow arch" spanning the roof of the restaurant.

Some of the redesigned restaurants will get fireplaces and big-screen TVs, amenities more important to lounging latte-sippers than harried moms with a brood to feed.

McDonald's is gambling that it can attract a new group of customers without turning off current loyalists. Maybe it can. But we'd hate to see McDonald's lose its way again.